Newly-wed Moussa smiles in a shelter in the Dar es Salam site in Chad. He says the greatest gift he and his bride have received is the peace and safety they have found in Dar es Salam.

DAR ES SALAM SITE, Chad, UNHCR – Moussa got married this morning. "I'm on my honeymoon today," says the Nigerian national, who only met his wife Zara a few weeks ago in a refugee camp in western Chad.

"We had a small ceremony this morning but the big party with music and dancing will be this evening," adds the 28-year-old bridegroom. "We don't have many of the traditional wedding foods and clothes . . . it's a real celebration from the heart." A religious leader presided, though the marriage has not been officially registered by the Nigerian or Chadian authorities.

But the community recognises them as married and they bring a bit of light, inspiration and hope to the recently opened Dar es Salam site, which provides shelter to more than 3,600 of the 18,000 Nigerian refugees in Chad. Many, like Moussa, fled across Lake Chad by canoe when militants attacked the north-east Nigeria town of Baga in early January.

"As soon as I heard gunfire, I ran towards the lake," says Moussa, referring to the day of the attack. "Militants threatened my family and killed my aunt last November because she wouldn't give them the money they demanded," he adds.

He spent two days making his way across the lake by canoe to Ngouboua village. "You could see dead bodies everywhere. One woman was wading through waist-deep water with a baby tied to her back. When she realised the infant was dead she threw the baby into the water and continued to flee," Moussa recalls, clearly moved by the memory. "She didn't even have time to cry."

An estimated 5,000 Nigerian refugees are staying with relatives or other host families in Ngouboua, but it is close to the border with Nigeria and vulnerable to attack. Militants arrived by canoe on February 13 and attacked the village, killing at least seven people in their first raid inside Chad.

Concerned about security at the border, the Chad government allocated land to construct the Dar es Salam site around 45 miles inside Chad. UNHCR and its partners have been facilitating the relocation of refugees from Ngouboua and other areas of the lake region to Dar es Salam. The refugee agency has also been supporting the government by funding the distribution of shelter, food items, blankets, plastic, kitchen utensils and other aid. UNHCR also assists refugees with access to drinking water, sanitation (latrines and showers), and health care.

In Ngouboua, Moussa spent a lot of time thinking about how he could get back to his home town of Maiduguri, the capital of north-eastern Nigeria's Borno state. He had been visiting relatives in Baga at the time of the attack.

The last thing on his mind was finding a bride. But after meeting 19-year-old Zara in Ngouboua when she was collecting water for her family, he began spending a lot of time with the young woman. "I would help her to pump water and to carry it back to her house," recalls Moussa. "I liked Zara's serious demeanour and our open and honest discussions."

Their friendship very soon turned to love, and Moussa popped the question in Ngouboua after just two weeks of meeting Zara. "When discussing marriage, the only question Zara asked me was, 'Do you smoke?'" he says with a smile, adding that he was able to assure her that he neither smoked nor drank.

Moussa, taking the government advice to move further into Chad for safety reasons, moved to the Dar es Salam site in late January with UNHCR help. The number of people deciding to move rose after the February 13 attack, with some seeking help with transport and others moving on their own.

"The greatest gift is the peace and safety we have found in Dar es Salam," says Moussa. "For my honeymoon, I am looking forward to moving into our own family shelter today, he adds.

Nigerian refugees at the Minawao camp in Cameroon's Far North region. Fresh fighting has forced thousands to flee to the region.

DAKAR, Senegal, UNHCR – The UN refugee agency reported on Tuesday that around 16,000 Nigerian refugees fled to Cameroon's Far North region over the weekend to escape clashes in north-east Nigeria between regional military forces and insurgents.

The Cameroonian authorities told UNHCR that the refugees had come from villages caught in the fighting along the border, and more continued to cross into the extremely volatile border zones, including Makaria, Logone Birni and Fotokol, which lie just south of Lake Chad and have come under attack by Nigerian insurgents in recent weeks.

UNHCR is working with Cameroon to relocate refugees as quickly as possible away from areas of active conflict to a transit site at Kousseri, which lies 56 miles from the border and 230 miles north of Minawao, where there is an established refugee camp.

"Because of conflict between military forces and insurgents happening on Cameroonian territory, we do not have access to border areas where refugees have arrived," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told journalists in Geneva, adding that the agency and partners were ready to conduct screening at the transit site and to provide emergency assistance in health, nutrition, water and food for new arrivals.

Relocation convoys from the border to Kousseri will begin on Wednesday. Following screening procedures, UNHCR will then organise daily transfers of 2,000 refugees to Minawao camp where urgent shelter and sanitation construction is under way. At Minawao, UNHCR will also be providing basic relief aid, such as blankets, kitchen sets and soap. The camp currently hosts more than 32,600 Nigerian refugees.

Edwards said the government of Cameroon continues to provide critical escorts for humanitarian and relocation convoys to ensure the physical protection of refugees and humanitarian actors.

"Because of the evolving security situation in the region and the prospect of more refugee arrivals, we are discussing the setting up of a second refugee camp, further away from the insecure border. Given the scarcity of water in the area around Minawao, we are looking to secure a second camp location that will provide adequate levels of potable water for a rapidly growing refugee population in the Far North region," he said.

Once screening has been completed, these latest movements are expected to bring the total number of Nigerian refugees in Cameroon to nearly 66,000, of whom around 41,500 have already been verified by UNHCR.

Meanwhile in Niger, insurgent attacks in early February on Bosso and Diffa towns have resulted in a deterioration in the humanitarian situation in the area, with the internal displacement of an estimated 50,000 people towards the city of Zinder (located 500 kms west of Diffa town) and across the Diffa region. UNHCR teams report that people are progressively returning to their homes in Diffa, while Bosso remains virtually empty.

UNHCR, with regional authorities, UN agencies and NGO partners, carried out a rapid evaluation in the Diffa region at the sites hosting displaced people. The situation is particularly worrying around Lake Chad and access to these populations, who are in dire need of food, water and shelter, is seriously constrained. A sharp rise in prices of food and basic commodity items at the local markets further compounds the difficult socio-economic situation of both the displaced population and the host community.

In the western part of the Diffa region, UNHCR and the country's National Commission of Eligibility will soon recommence the voluntary relocation of refugees from host villages at the border to the Sayam Forage refugee camp, located 50 kms north of the border. "We are also working to establish another site for refugees or internally displaced persons, should the situation in Diffa region continue to deteriorate," Edwards noted.

More than 100,000 people have found refuge in Niger in the past two years, including Nigerian refugees and returning nationals of Niger, according to the authorities. Last week, the state of emergency in the Diffa region was extended for an additional three months by the Niger parliament.

The conflict in north-east Nigeria has also forced around 18,000 people to flee to western Chad, including more than 15,000 since early January after major attacks on the town of Baga in Nigeria's Borno state. To date, UNHCR has moved over 3,800 of them to the site of Dar es Salam. In addition, close to a million people are internally displaced in north-eastern Nigeria, according to the Nigeria Emergency Management Agency.

"We are encouraged by important recommendations this report makes to the government, which we hope will be examined closely. The report strongly echoes some of UNHCR's own concerns with the use of immigration detention in the UK, in particular in relation to the Detained Fast Track (DFT) procedure," said Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, UNHCR Representative to the UK.

In 2014, nearly 14,000 asylum seekers were detained, that is more than half of those who sought protection in the UK last year from conflict, violence and persecution. Noting there will be circumstances in which individuals will need to be detained, reducing the use of detention is possible, as seen in 2010 with the government’s commitment and the progress it has made towards ending the detention of children.

The report's recommendation to introduce a maximum time limit of 28 days on the length of time anyone can be detained under immigration powers addresses one of the shortcomings UNHCR has identified in the UK’s immigration detention framework. At present, the lack of time limit leaves open the possibility of asylum seekers being detained indefinitely and without automatic judicial oversight. In practice this has led to prolonged detention, as was evident from the testimonies given to the inquiry. The UK is one of a handful of countries without a time limit on immigration detention.

The UK uses detention in asylum procedures more frequently than any other country in the EU. UNHCR supports the inquiry's recommendation that decisions to detain should be exceptional. As outlined in UNHCR’s Detention Guidelines, it is UNHCR's view that detention should be used only as a measure of last resort.

"Seeking asylum is a legitimate act and it is a fundamental human right. In our view the detention of asylum-seekers should be avoided – these are people who are seeking protection. We are ready to work with the authorities on this and support efforts to end the routine use of detention in the asylum process and to strengthen alternatives to detention ," said Vargas Llosa.

UNHCR's global research has found that stringent detention regimes do not deter irregular migration, while alternatives to detention – such as reporting requirements, bail or other community supervision arrangements - can address government’s concerns regarding irregular migration and assist with functioning asylum systems. While the UK has a number of alternatives in place, UNHCR believes that there are other workable alternatives suitable to the UK. Rates of cooperation of over 90 per cent have been achieved where asylum seekers are released into alternative programmes with proper supervision and support.

Empirical evidence also demonstrates that detention is considerably more expensive compared to most alternatives, even when the short and long term negative health consequences on detainees or the impact on their later integration are excluded from the calculation.

In 2014 UNHCR launched a five-year Global Strategy 'Beyond Detention' to support governments to end the detention of asylum seekers and refugees. Through this strategy, UNHCR is working with governments, NGOs and civil society to address some of the main challenges and concerns around detention policies and practices. Implementation of the strategy is envisaged around the development of national action plans, which will include awareness-raising, capacity-building, strengthening partnerships, information sharing, data collection and reporting, research and monitoring. UNHCR welcomes the UK as one of the focus countries for the initial roll-out.

UNHCR's written and oral submissions to the Joint Inquiry into the use of immigration detention in the UK have been made in the broader context of organisation's long and continuing cooperation with the UK authorities focused on monitoring, reviewing and improving the UK's asylum system. Since 2006, through Quality Initiative and Quality Integration projects UNHCR has monitored the operation of the DFT with the cooperation of the Home Office and issued two reports - in 2008 and 2010.

Abu Mahmood, 48, makes pizza at his bakery in Jordan's Za'atari refugee camp. Originally from Dera'a in southern Syria, he opened the "Pizzeria of Peace" in 2013 to support himself and his family while living in the camp. He recently started the camp's first pizza delivery service, delivering food by bicycle to busy aid workers and refugees.

ZA'ATARI REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan, UNHCR – A Syrian entrepreneur has brought a slice of normal life to refugees and aid workers in Jordan's Za'atari refugee camp by starting the camp's first pizza delivery service.

Abu Mahmood, 48, was a plumber and wholesale shop owner in Dera'a province in southern Syria before heavy fighting forced him and his family to seek refuge in neighbouring Jordan in late 2012.

A few months after arriving in Za'atari, despite having lost his home and his livelihood, Abu Mahmood was making and selling orange juice when he came up with a new plan to support himself and his family in the camp.

"When I was in Syria I had always thought about opening a bakery and making pizza, but it was only after I came to the camp that the idea became a reality," he tells visitors from UNHCR.

Having borrowed the money to start the business, in October 2013 he opened Mu'ajanat Esalam – or Pizzeria of Peace – on Za'atari's bustling commercial main street, known by residents as the Champs-Élysées.

Each morning at 6 a.m., Abu Mahmood and head baker Yahya light the large pizza oven and prepare enough dough for up to 3,000 pizzas. Their bestsellers are classic cheese and tomato margheritas, and small pizzas topped with ground beef, tomato sauce and onions.

While business was going well, Abu Mahmood says he realised there were many potential customers in the camp who were too far away or didn't have time to come to his shop on the Champs-Élysées.

"Nobody else was delivering pizza, so I saw an opportunity and bought a bike. Now we can deliver to anywhere in the camp," he says. He typically makes between 30 and 50 deliveries a day, most often to aid workers who want to eat lunch at their offices or to refugees in distant parts of the camp.

"This shows the spirit here in the camp. People are not just … waiting for humanitarian agencies to create opportunities for them, they are proactive, they are very creative and they come up with new ideas," says UNHCR's Nasreddine Touaibia, a regular customer of the delivery service.

It also helps to bring a sense of normality to the camp, Touaibia adds. "It's like you're anywhere else in any village or any town, where people are looking to offer you services to get their businesses moving and gain more profit."

Abu Mahmood says the recent addition of the delivery service has given the business a welcome boost and, as if to prove the point, an order comes in for 500 meat pizzas for a wedding taking place in another part of the camp.

He says that while he never imagined that he would be forced to leave his country and become a refugee, he is content with the new career he has made for himself in the camp. "It's a good business, and I'm even thinking about opening a pizza place back in Syria when we go back."

Chaloka Beyani, UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons.

BANGUI, Central African Republic, UNHCR – The violence and suffering in the Central African Republic has faded from world attention, but although the general security situation is not as dire as a year ago, the country remains fragile. People continue to flee their homes every day. An upsurge in violence has forced the displacement of almost 50,000 people since the start of the year. Around 450,000 people are displaced within the Central African Republic, including 36,000 trapped in enclaves like Yaloke, and around 430,000 have found shelter in neighbouring countries. More than 2.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. Zambian academic Chaloka Beyani recently visited the country to assess conditions and needs in his role as special UN Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons. Beyani, who reports to the Human Rights Council and UN General Assembly, met internally displaced people [IDP] as well as government leaders, UN officials, international aid workers and diplomats from donor nations. He discussed his impressions and his thoughts on the future for the Central African Republic with UNHCR Public Information Officer Dalia Al Achi in Bangui. Excerpts from the interview:

What's the current situation in the Central African Republic?

The country is still in an emergency crisis . . . The country is experiencing new displacement every day, while the situation of current IDPs has not been resolved. We still have the main militia or armed groups – namely the predominantly Muslim Seleka group and the mainly Christian anti-Balaka militia – who have not been dealt with. Some of them are exacting taxes from the population, so they are entrenching their presence and engaging in economic activity to perpetuate their existence. They are known and seem to move freely among the population, including, extremely worryingly, in IDP sites. This means that these armed groups are today the ones controlling the population. That needs dealing with.

It is clear that there is a deep divide between communities that will take some time to mend, but it needs to be attended to. The most significant point is the absence of government authority. I realise there's a transitional government, but it is also quite clear that government is not felt where it matters, at the level of the communities, at the level of the national policies and frameworks, and in just providing plain leadership in terms of what needs to be done and how that should be done.

What do you think are the underlying causes of this conflict?

The primary underlying cause is the lack of development throughout the country. It has not been addressed for years and as a result people in the eastern and north-eastern parts of the country have felt that they are second-class citizens. When we spoke to Muslim communities and youth, they spoke of marginalisation. They feel they are not being included in political development processes. They also talk of a lack of equality and respect. So, if we want to promote coexistence, it is important that these perceptions are addressed.

There's a great deal of misinformation in the Central African Republic. It is crucial to put in place methods of collecting and disseminating credible information. While the crisis is being depicted as being between the Christians and the Muslims, this simplification does not reflect dynamics on the ground. The crisis actually has much deeper roots. The labels ex-Seleka and anti-Balaka have acquired a life of their own and need to be demystified. Rather than receiving a label, these militias should be identified as groups that are involved in criminal activities, collecting tax, imposing all kinds of penalties on the civilian population.

What can be done to restore lasting peace and stability?

First of all, there should be measures to help victims of the violence. They are real symbols of suffering. In terms of finding solutions for IDPs, you have to study their patterns of movement; where they ended up and why, what needs to be done in their places of origin to enable them to return home. IDPs cannot be considered in isolation from the broader context. My findings are that IDPs have not been engaged meaningfully so far as part of the preparation for a national dialogue.

They need to be consulted and represented to find out what works for them and how they see themselves as part of the national process of reconciliation. They need to be registered to vote, to participate in the elections. Special voting arrangements have to be made for IDPs, so that they feel part of the process, rather than being excluded as seems to be the case now.

The transition process also has to tackle effectively the outstanding problems of the ex-Seleka and anti-Balaka. We cannot go into an election thinking that these issues will resolve themselves, because they won't. And without proportional representation in that election, the result will only add to the grievances of the Muslim population.

Further on IDPs, the government intends to close the Mpoko site at Bangui airport, which provides shelter to 20,000 people, down from 100,000 in December 2013 at the height of the crisis. What do you think about this plan?

The IDPs have not been consulted about this plan and it is imperative that their voices be heard. An alternative site, Avicom, has been proposed to relocate them, but IDPs I met with told me the site was inappropriate. Development actors have also made the same point. From my experience, governments often identify barren, economically unviable sites out of convenience, without considering whether these sites are suitable and wanted by the IDPs.

Rather than relocating them temporarily, which would lead in effect to secondary displacement, it is it is essential to support a durable solution. The preferred solution would be to rebuild and rehabilitate their places of origin, restoring security there, whether it is through MINUSCA [the UN peace-keeping force in Central African Republic] or other forces. It is only then that you are helping them exercise their freedom of choice about the future.

Many people are trapped in towns like Yaloke, where around 400 Peuhl people are protected by MINUSCA but still unable to escape to safety. What should be done about these nomadic people?

We need to put more emphasis on their right to freedom of movement, so that they have choices on where they want to go ultimately, and on what kind of support they should be given. It's important to understand that these are indigenous people with a distinct lifestyle and way of life based on cattle breeding, and that protecting their way of life is paramount.

They complained [to us] that their children were malnourished and hadn't eaten beef and drunk milk in a long time. Their staple diet is very important to them for their spiritual survival and sustainment. People have to eat the food that is part of their culture. You can't give them food they won't eat.

Secondly, this is a nomadic group on the move in search of pasture for their animals and their freedom of movement needs to be guaranteed. This entails understanding their patterns of movement in order to provide security when they are moving and protect them from possible attacks, whether within the borders of a given state or across to a neighbouring country. We need to make sure that groups undertaking agriculture do not expand their activities across routes used by nomads, because there will be clashes. All actors need to know that durable solutions for nomadic IDPs lie in ensuring that they can exercise their freedom of movement by protecting their traditional routes and having their livelihoods restored – in this case having cattle.

What role can religious leaders play in reconciliation?

The role of religious leaders is essential. At the outset of the crisis, religious leaders on both sides stood up to promote unity between communities and to condemn the violence as unacceptable and a misuse of religion for political purposes. As figures of authority and faith, they can lead their congregations to promote reconciliation and dialogue between the communities. You need to touch the soul of the people. It should get to the grass roots level, where you have peace-building communities. As I discussed with the religious leaders I met, the people are hurting and they need healing.

Do you have a message about the situation in Central African Republic?

The one critical message to give to the world is about the risk of radicalisation in the CAR, given the grievances expressed by the Muslim population about being marginalised, the lack of development in their areas for decades, and not being treated as equal citizens and with respect. If this is not dealt with, then we will see another front by Nigeria's Boko Haram or a similar group. That needs attention and it should grab the headlines. We have to take steps now.

]]>Mon, 02 Mar 2015 10:33:00 +0100UNHCR chief briefs Security Council on Syriahttp://www.unhcr.org.uk/news-and-views/news-list/news-detail/article/unhcr-chief-briefs-security-council-on-syria.html
Statement by António Guterres to the Security Council in New YorkMr. President,Excellencies,Ladies...Statement by António Guterres to the Security Council in New York

Mr. President,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Briefing this Council in 2013, I said the Syrian war not only had unleashed the worst humanitarian crisis of our times but also was posing a terrible threat to regional stability and to global peace and security.

This is the reality we face today.

Iraq has seen the most frightening and complete spill-over of an internal conflict into a neighbouring country in recent history. Lebanon has been on near-permanent security alert, and there have been increasing threats even to Jordan in the past months. As many as 20,000 foreign fighters from over 50 countries have reportedly traveled to Syria and Iraq since 2011, with their number nearly doubling during the course of last year.

Meanwhile, the Syrian refugee crisis has overwhelmed the existing response capacities, with 3.8 million registered refugees in the neighbouring countries.

Lebanon and Jordan have seen their populations grow, in the space of a few years, to a point they were prepared to reach only in several decades. One-third of the Lebanese population today is Palestinian or Syrian. Jordan is facing a similar challenge. And Turkey has now become the biggest refugee-hosting country in the world.

In addition, more than 2 million Iraqis were internally displaced in 2014, and some 220,000 sought refuge in other countries.

The continued growth in displacement is staggering. But at the same time, the nature of the refugee crisis is now changing. As the level of despair rises, and the available protection space shrinks, we are approaching a dangerous turning point.

After years in exile, refugees' resources are long depleted, and their living conditions are drastically deteriorating. I have met middle-class families with children who are barely surviving on the streets and praying to make it through the winter. Well over half of Syrian refugees in Lebanon are living in insecure dwellings – up from a third last year. And a survey of 40,000 Syrian families in Jordan found that two-thirds were living below the absolute poverty line. One father of four compared life as a refugee to being stuck in quicksand – every time you move, you sink down further. With humanitarian appeals systematically underfunded, there just isn't enough assistance to provide for Syrian refugees.

At the same time, host communities are severely overstretched. The refugee influx has heavily impacted economies and societies, mostly in Lebanon, Jordan and Northern Iraq, overwhelming social services, infrastructure and government resources. International support is far from keeping pace with the magnitude of the needs.

As host countries face growing security risks due to the regional spread of the conflict, and do not get the help they need to cope with the refugee influx, Syrians are finding it increasingly difficult to reach safety. UNHCR's monthly registration figures in Lebanon have dropped nearly 80 per cent compared to early 2014, and the number of those entering Jordan has also substantially reduced.

Meanwhile, it is important to underline that refugees continue to cross the border into Turkey in significant numbers. The Turkish Government has already spent around six billion dollars in direct assistance to Syrian refugees. In a landmark decision last year, Turkey's temporary protection decree gave Syrians access to the country's labor market as well as free education and health care.

But in the global context I described, it is no surprise that growing desperation is forcing more and more Syrian refugees to move further afield. The dramatic situation in the Mediterranean illustrates this, with Syrians accounting for one third of the nearly 220,000 boat arrivals last year.

Excellencies,

With the refugee situation growing more protracted and more desperate, almost two million Syrian refugees under 18 risk becoming a lost generation. And many of the over 100,000 refugee children born in exile could face the risk of statelessness. If this is not properly addressed, this crisis-in-the-making could have huge consequences for the future, not only of Syria but also of the region.

As humanitarian resources dwindle, abandoning refugees to hopelessness only exposes them to even greater suffering, exploitation and dangerous abuse. Abandoning their hosts to manage the situation on their own could result in serious regional destabilization, and more security concerns elsewhere in the world.

It should be obvious that in order to prevent this and to preserve the protection space in the region, refugees and host countries need massive international support. The Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (or 3RP) aims to bring together the humanitarian and longer-term efforts of the host governments and over 200 UN and NGO partners. Its programmes are designed to be funded not only from humanitarian, but increasingly from development cooperation budgets.

I hope the upcoming Kuwait III conference will play a determining role in stabilizing the situation in the refugee hosting countries. Beyond the immediate humanitarian priorities, it is crucial that development actors fund the 3RP's resilience pillar and the host governments' plans. Countries like Lebanon and Jordan need much more financial assistance – not only to local refugee hosting communities, but also through government budget support for necessary structural investments in health systems, education, water and electricity supply and other public infrastructure cracking under the huge pressure.

As discussed at length during the Berlin Conference, the Syria situation illustrates the dangerous inadequacy of today's development cooperation policies in a time of multiplying conflicts. To address this, bilateral and multilateral donors, and international financial institutions, should review existing criteria and priorities. It is absurd, for example, that Lebanon or Jordan have no access to World Bank grants because they are considered as middle-income countries.

Excellencies,

As High Commissioner for Refugees, it breaks my heart to see Syrian families fleeing from a horrible war, forced to risk their lives again, on unsafe boats, to find protection in Europe. Since the start of 2015, over 370 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean – that's one person drowning for every twenty who made it. But Italy's Mare Nostrum operation has ended, and the EU's Triton initiative is limited both in mandate and in resources. Europe must step up its capacity to save lives, with a robust search and rescue operation in the Central Mediterranean – or thousands more, including many, many Syrians, will perish.

To reduce the number of people getting on boats in the first place, more legal avenues are needed for Syrians to seek protection in third countries. Several States provide resettlement and humanitarian admission programmes, but the needs far exceed available spaces. We believe one-tenth of the Syrian refugees would require resettlement as the adequate solution for their protection situation. Flexible visa policies, expanded family reunification, academic scholarships and private sponsor schemes must complement these measures. Following the example of countries like Germany and Sweden, other States in Europe and the Gulf region should consider offering legal access with more opportunities, so as to alleviate some of the pressure on Syria's neighbours and give more refugees an alternative way of reaching safety.

Without such alternatives, the number of people taking to the seas will continue to grow. And not only are they facing serious human rights violations at the hands of smugglers and traffickers. We now also see armed groups threatening to enter the smuggling business for their own purposes of sowing fear.

This should remind us that protecting refugees also means tackling racism and xenophobia. In today's climate of rising panic, it deeply worries me that refugees are becoming mixed up with security concerns, confronting hostility in places where they thought they were safe. In several public debates they are made scapegoats for any number of problems, from terrorism to economic hardship and perceived as threats to their host communities' way of life. But we need to remember that the primary threat is not from refugees, but to them.

Syrians are now the biggest refugee population under UNHCR's mandate. As their number keeps growing and they become more vulnerable, the serious repercussions this has across the region only highlight the obvious – the urgent need for the international community to bring together all key actors and to put an end to the conflict.. There are no winners in this war; everyone is losing. But the highest price is paid by the refugees and the other innocent victims inside the country.

Angele, aged 13, wants to be a teacher. She lives in Saria village in central Côte d'Ivoire. Originally from Burkina Faso, her parents were never registered at birth and were hence at risk of statelessness. They managed to get late birth certificates and now have consular cards from Burkina Faso.

ABIDJAN, Côte d'Ivoire, UNHCR – West African nations pledged this week at a high-level meeting in Côte d'Ivoire to step up efforts aimed at resolving the situation of hundreds of thousands of stateless people in the region.

At the end of the ministerial gathering, representatives of 15 member states of the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, on Wednesday adopted a declaration on the prevention, reduction and elimination of statelessness.

The declaration contains 25 commitments and highlights the need for ECOWAS states to gather concrete information on the causes of statelessness and the number and profile of stateless people in a region where there are at least 750,000 people who are stateless or at risk of statelessness, including 700,000 in Côte d'Ivoire.

It stresses that every child should acquire a nationality at birth and that all foundlings should be considered nationals of the state in which they are found. It also focuses on the need to ensure that men and women have equal rights to acquire, change and retain their nationality and pass on nationality to their children.

The text stresses the importance of protecting stateless people by restoring their dignity and, in particular, by providing them with a legal identity and documentation. It invites member states who have not yet done so to accede, as soon as possible, to the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

"I am convinced that only true cooperation will considerably reduce statelessness in our countries," conference host, President Alassane Ouattara of Côte d'Ivoire, told delegates. "Together, we can find solutions inspired by the international treaties to put an end to this plight in 10 years," he added.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, in closing remarks, welcomed West Africa's commitment to ending statelessness, while noting that "ultimately, the concept of 'belonging' goes beyond legal texts and identity documents, and also requires political will to build tolerance and acceptance, and the social and human space for all members of society to be recognised, to contribute and to belong."

The conference, gathering ministers from 15 ECOWAS countries alongside representatives of international and regional organisations, officials of UN and other international humanitarian agencies, civil society, human rights activists and academics, was jointly organised by UNHCR and ECOWAS. It was preceded by two days of preparatory meetings.

The conference fits in with UNHCR's "#IBelong" campaign launched last year to end statelessness around the globe by 2024. There are believed to be more than 10 million stateless people around the world.

For many, the lack of a nationality makes it difficult to access the rights enjoyed by citizens, including freedom of movement and access to education, health care and employment. They are also vulnerable to discrimination and abuse as they have no legal existence.

"Having a nationality is something most people take for granted – but to those who do not have one, or who cannot prove it, this lack often sentences them to a life of discrimination, frustration and despair," Guterres stressed. "Stateless people are like ghosts, forced to lead their lives in the shadows," added UNHCR Honorary Lifetime Goodwill Ambassador Barbara Hendricks in an address.

Members of a Syrian refugee family in their rented home in the southern Lebanese town of Abbasieh. More than 80 per cent of Syrian refugees in Lebanon rent their accommodation and pay on average £130 a month.

ABBASIEH, Lebanon, UNHCR – Ali* and his family are living through their third winter in Lebanon, but thoughts of their Syrian home in the city of Idlib are never far away. "If we could go home, we would. But as long as the troubles last we can't," said the 30-year old, recalling the conflict in Syria. "We are thankful for the Lebanese."

Ali and his wife and three children live with his younger brother, Ahmed,* and his family in a single-storey concrete shelter in the village of Abbasieh, which is located near the city of Tyre in south Lebanon.

Despite the driving winter rain lashing the plastic sheeting on their hilltop home, these two families are more fortunate than most of the other almost 1.2 million Syrian refugees spread throughout Lebanon. They live in relatively solid accommodation and have a landlord whom they assist with rent and labour.

"This family is very deserving," said Firas, the Lebanese landlord, who receives around £170 a month in rent from the two families for their modest lodgings and who has agreed to freeze the rent for the next year. The brothers earn on average £210 a month working the nearby fields.

More than 80 per cent of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, who live in around 1,700 locations countrywide, rent their accommodation and pay on average £130 a month. There are no formal refugee camps for Syrians.

Most refugees rent apartments, but as their vulnerability has deepened more and more have had to resort to living in unfinished buildings, garages, abandoned sheds, worksites and tents in informal settlements. Structural improvements are often only of a temporary nature due to the lack of authorisation from the government or landlords for something more substantial.

Ali, Ahmed and their families make up part of the almost 140,000 Syrian refugees living in south Lebanon, while most are scattered throughout the east in the Bekaa Valley (412,000), in and around Beirut (339,000) and in the north (285,000).

Recent UNHCR assessments have found that more than half of all Syrian refugees live in sub-standard shelters and this is particularly challenging in the winter months when snow, rain and flooding increase their hardship.

This year is the fourth that UNHCR and partners have provided winter assistance to Syrian refugees in Lebanon, a massive operation whose planning and budgeting begins months in advance to ensure that, despite the myriad funding and logistical challenges, as many of the assessed needs as possible can be met.

Winter monthly assistance has been provided from November onwards, including assisting the most vulnerable families to purchase heating fuel, providing stoves, blankets, weatherproofing kits and other essentials needed to keep people warm and dry.

Working with Lebanese municipalities, partners and refugee outreach volunteers, UNHCR's five offices throughout Lebanon have also established inter-agency response teams as well as making contingency stocks of emergency supplies available countrywide.

The winter programme prioritises all those identified in advance as most in need, starting with families living in areas situated above 500 metres in altitude, those in very insecure shelters and those who are economically vulnerable. Hundreds of thousands of people, including poor Lebanese, are receiving some kind of winter assistance. This year's carefully planned inter-agency winter operation is providing at least £48 million in aid for both refugees and needy Lebanese families.

"Since the first Syrian refugees crossed the border into Lebanon almost four years ago, Lebanese communities have extended their hospitality on a truly impressive scale," said UNHCR Representative in Lebanon Ninette Kelley, after meeting the refugee families in Abbasieh.

"Lebanon today faces an unprecedented challenge to manage both its own population and Syrian refugees. It has the highest per capita concentration of refugees in the world and more global support, including for long-term development, is urgently needed."

Central African refugees on the banks of the Oubangui River on the Democratic Republic of the Congo side.

BANGUI, Central African Republic, UNHCR – The UN refugee agency on Tuesday reported that an upsurge in violence in the Central African Republic has forced the displacement of almost 50,000 people since the start of the year.

This includes an estimated 30,000 who have fled their homes and found refuge in other parts of the country and more than 19,200 people who have crossed into the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo's Equateur province.

UNHCR spokesperson Karin de Gruijl, at a press briefing in Geneva, said those displaced within Central African Republic since January had mostly moved to the northern town of Batangafo and to Bambari in the east-central part of the country. Many were escaping violence associated with seasonal movements of livestock and clashes between herders and the local and agricultural populations with the predominantly Christian anti-Balaka militia.

Exacerbating this, some herders have turned to the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel group for protection. In addition, recent military operations forcing ex-Seleka forces out of public buildings in Bria, a town east of Bambari, prompted reprisal attacks on nearby villages. Civilians were caught in the middle and saw their villages, houses and belongings burnt down. People who arrived in Bambari were destitute and distraught. The majority are women and children and some had been hiding in the bush for weeks.

De Gruijl said that UNHCR had distributed relief items to more than 1,170 recently displaced families in Bambari, while 800 families in Batangafo had received emergency kits. "But while the security situation remains precarious, the humanitarian needs are still enormous," Edwards said, adding: "Armed elements enter some of the sites for displaced people in Bambari and Batangafo, threatening people and extorting money."

Some of the displaced live just metres away from their former homes, yet they cannot go back for fear of losing their lives. While most of the local authorities are absent, many public buildings in Bambari are controlled by ex-Seleka forces. "A more robust police and gendarmerie presence is urgently needed to protect civilians and to prevent further killings and acts of retaliation," UNHCR's de Gruijl stressed.

She added that across the border, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNHCR had registered more than 19,200 refugees who had arrived in Bosobolo territory in the north of Equateur as a result of new violence since December in Central African Republic's Kouango district, in Ouaka prefecture.

"Our teams on the ground report the ongoing arrival of refugees who tell us that they fled clashes between the anti-Balaka and ex-Seleka militias in their villages. They say that their houses are being burned and they have no other choice than to flee. If they stay in their villages, they risk being tortured or killed and women are being raped," de Gruijl said.

New arrivals have also been reported in the territory of Mobayi. Around 2,400 refugees have crossed into the Democratic Republic of the Congo, using new entry points in the territories of Mobayi and Bosobolo since February 15. Most are children. They said that they had fled out of fear of violence by ex-Seleka fighters after a disarmament operation in Bria.

UNHCR and its partners are on the ground to set up a new refugee site in the area of Bili, away from the border. Newly arrived refugees currently live in spontaneous settlements on the bank of the Oubangui River, the natural border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Central African Republic, with limited access to health care, clean water and food. Children have no access to education.

De Gruijl said UNHCR was organising emergency assistance, including mobile clinics, and access to potable water while preparing their transfer to the refugee site. The lack of services and logistical challenges in this remote part of northern Democratic Republic of the Congo are making this work even more difficult. The hospital in Bili has only 15 beds and lacks equipment

"Our teams have received alarming reports of sexual violence by armed elements from CAR [Central African Republic]," de Gruijl said, citing the case of three refugee girls kidnapped and raped by armed men. "We fear that there are many more cases that remain unreported. Therefore, relocation of the refugees away from the border is crucial and we call on all partners and the Congolese authorities to deploy all necessary efforts to allow this transfer to take place urgently," she added.

Almost 900,000 people have been forcibly displaced by violence in the Central African Republic. Around 442,000 are displaced inside the country, including more than 50,000 in Bangui, around 35,000 people who fled to Bambari and 33,700 in Batangafo. Around 451,000 are living in exile, mainly in Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo (24,000)

Nahid Parveen is a paralegal with basic law and mediation training. She helps Urdu speakers in Bangladesh to apply for their identity documents.

DHAKA, Bangladesh, UNHCR – It's a cool Sunday afternoon in the Geneva camp in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Small crowds have gathered on the settlement's narrow alleys, transfixed by an open-air screen showing a live World Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan. Some boys have painted the Pakistani flag on their faces and chests – the legacy of a past that continues to affect them today.

During the 1947 partition of the sub-continent, hundreds of thousands of Urdu speakers migrated from India to what was then East Pakistan. As some Urdu speakers had sided with Pakistan during Bangladesh's war of independence, many in Bangladesh faced violence and were forced to live in camps in urban centres; this was meant to prevent violence between majority and minority communities when the country became independent in 1971.

By 2006 there were an estimated 151,000 stateless Urdu speakers in 116 camps and settlements in Bangladesh, with another 100,000 living outside camps and also without citizenship. Since then, court rulings and a concerted effort by national and international parties helped bring down the number of stateless people and set a good example on how to reduce statelessness.

The Geneva camp alone hosts around 30,000 Urdu speakers. As the Sunday crowd focuses on the cricket, two young women wrap up their day at work. They may not know it, but Nahid Parveen and Shabnaj Akter, both 20, hold the key to their community's present and future.

They work in a legal aid centre launched by Khalid Hussain, the first lawyer among the Urdu speaking community living in camps in Bangladesh. He studied in the camp up to Grade Eight and then attended a state school, where the medium of instruction was Bengali. Subjected to frequent ridicule and prejudiced remarks, most of his friends dropped out and only four managed to complete their studies ­- no small feat.

Together with a friend, Hussain founded the Association of Young Generation of Urdu-Speaking Community in 1999 and started to advocate for Bangladeshi citizenship for this community. Two years later, Hussain and nine other Urdu speakers filed a writ petition to confirm the right of Urdu speakers to citizenship.

In 2003, the judgment was delivered – the Supreme Court granted citizenship to the petitioners and directed the government to register them as voters. For Hussain and his community, the verdict was a milestone. "This ruling changed my life," he said.

Following the court ruling UNHCR helped liaise between national campaigners, the international community and the government. In 2008, the Supreme Court stated that all members of the Urdu-speaking community were nationals of Bangladesh in accordance with its laws and directed the election commission to include them in electoral rolls and give them national identity cards. This declaration ended the statelessness of more than 300,000 Urdu-speaking men, women and children residing in the country.

For this achievement, Bangladesh features as one of seven case studies from Asia, Europe and Latin America in the first of a series of UNHCR Good Practices Papers released on Monday. The first one of these, "Resolving Existing Major Situations of Statelessness," corresponds to the first action point of the 10-point Global Action Plan, which is part of UNHCR's #IBelong campaign to end statelessness by 2024.

It demonstrates how it is possible to resolve the situation of hundreds of thousands through political will and action, technical advice and targeted advocacy by UNHCR as well as collaboration from a broad range of civil society actors.

In Bangladesh, Khalid Hussain founded the Council of Minorities to sensitise the Urdu-speaking camp dwellers about their rights. The organisation's six legal aid centres provide free services. "We facilitate the acquisition and use of birth certificates, passports, trade licences and ID cards," said Hussain.

Nahid Parveen is proud of her work there because it earns her respect in the community: "When I leave home . . . people greet me on the streets." Shabnaj Akter works part-time as a paralegal so that she can continue her studies. Her Bengali friends are friendly, she said. They are comfortable visiting her congested home in the camp and she has never experienced discrimination as an Urdu speaker.

While doors have opened for the community, there are still daily obstacles to be overcome. Many Urdu speakers continue to live in extreme poverty, sometimes unable to access basic services, either because of the unavailability of such services in their area or because they cannot meet the legal or administrative requirements.

For example, the camp residents lack a valid address, which is required to acquire a passport. The challenge now is to facilitate an unhindered access to their civil rights so they can have equal opportunities like any other Bangladeshi citizen.

By Onchita Shadman in Dhaka, Bangladesh and Roland Schönbauer in Geneva